Hornby 00 or Triang

[innit]

In about 1961/62 I had one mate with the Hornby 3 rail set with a standard class 4 tank and another mate who had a Triang set with an American style train. I didn't like the American set cos there was something wrong about the scale, maybe the wheels were too big? On the other hand I was jealous of the working headlight. The Hornby set I preferred cos it was closer to what I knew in real life. However I didn't like the third rail at all.

 

I had a set from (I think!) Marks and Spencer which the carriages actually had compartments and seats but the locomotive was an awful diesel with brass wheels- can't remember the type. Mindful of the Triang working headlight I put a working light in the cab of the diesel and the carriages.

[Dreb48]

Hi foxy lady your husband is the envy of any boy that ever had a train set. You may not realise but Bassett Lowke is the Rolls Royce of model railways. I was lucky enough to own a catalogue in the 50s and was admired by my chums

[Dreb48]

Well innit , my problem with Hornby was always the third rail and also the tin plate carriages with windows painted on. When I got the Triang Princess Elizabeth set the carriages were moulded plastic and had proper windows.I remember my dad buying a box of secondhand stuff off a bloke at work. It contained miles of track and unfortunately that awful American locomotive which I never liked. I think the initial choice of engines you could buy was only 3, though I may be wrong. Happy days.

[hillsbro]

I also got the Tri-ang Princess Elizabeth set for Christmas 1956; it cost £4/15/- for the loco, two carriages and an oval of old-style track (with the solid grey plastic "ballast"). Then there was the transformer/rectifier and controller. The following Christmas the "Jinty" 47606 joined its big sister, also some lengths of the more realistic Series 3 track from the Hobbies shop on Shalesmoor. When I bought a Hornby coal truck from Thomas's in Middlewood Road it shorted out the circuit (being metal - silly me...). I took it back and swopped it for a loading gauge and a Dinky toy..

[WallBuilder]

I had a little Hornby tank engine that was soon suffering as the household cat would pounce out from beneath the sideboard and knock it flying. The diesel engine I had that was about a foot long didn't manage to make more than one or two laps either before it was also derailed. pesky cat.

[JCBman]

Tri-ang. "Queen Elizabeth" 46201 (I think!) 2 coaches

[Dreb48]

Hey hillsboro had completely forgotten about the solid grey track that was included in the original sets. Can you remember how many engines were available originally?

[hillsbro]

Hi Dreb48 - I don't know how many locos. they began with; I don't think there were very many at first, and the "Princess Elizabeth" was the most popular. There's an interesting website here. The page about the "standard" track is here..

[foxy lady]

Hi foxy lady your husband is the envy of any boy that ever had a train set. You may not realise but Bassett Lowke is the Rolls Royce of model railways. I was lucky enough to own a catalogue in the 50s and was admired by my chums

 

Thanks for the info. I'm sure it was the Rolls Royce of train sets when his grand father bought it, but I don't think many of the trains actually move any more despite the wasting of many hours and many litres of meths.

[Cookingfat]

i remember my first hornby train set bought by my aunty for christmas. it was the usual oval track i used shoe boxes and high heals for smaller tunnels the only drawback was the huge transformer mush have weighed a couple of kilos it was the size of 2 house bricks with a lough humming noise with the smell of burning dust i loved that train set for donkeys years the best present i have ever recieved